There are many indications that Germany and Poland tried to sweep the matter under the carpet. When an order was issued to arrest one of the members of the group of Ukrainian divers living near Warsaw who were going to blow up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipeline in September 2022, the Polish authorities allowed the suspect to flee to Ukraine. All under the pretext that the German authorities had not entered his name in the Schengen area visitor identification system in time. However, extensive reports by the Wall Street Journal and the Süddeutsche Zeitung have reignited the debate over responsibility for the destruction of key energy infrastructure connecting Russia and Germany.
Even Emmanuel Macron called Nord Stream 2 a serious mistake
Both newspapers suggest that this was an action carried out by the Ukrainians, not without the support of the Western Allies. This is a logical conclusion. After all, it is in Kiev’s interest that Germany never again buys cheap Russian gas en masse, which in the past gave Putin the means to carry out a Ukrainian offensive. Nord Stream was also the embodiment of the policy of maintaining relations between Berlin and Moscow over the heads of the democratic states located between these countries, including Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic states. It was based on a completely false assumption, especially after Russia’s occupation of Crimea, that close economic relations would deter Putin from conquests because it would be too difficult for him to break with the West.
In a recent interview with the Economist, even Germany’s closest ally, Emmanuel Macron, revealed that he was firmly against the idea of expanding the pipeline in the form of Nord Stream 2, but ended up accepting it in exchange for Berlin’s approval of the expansion of French nuclear power. Angela Merkel then believed that she had a permanent guarantee of one of the three engines of Germany’s “economic miracle”, in addition to massive exports to authoritarian China and free riding on NATO.
August Hanning, head of the German intelligence agency BND in the years 1998-2005, told the daily “Die Welt” that the Ukrainian action would have had no chance of success without logistical support from Poland. The thesis seems reasonable, but revealing it by a professional spy is a serious mistake. “To all initiators and sponsors of Nord Stream 1 and 2. The only thing you should do today is apologize and remain silent,” Donald Tusk wrote directly on the X platform.
